{"id":18722,"date":"2024-02-06T17:25:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T15:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=18722"},"modified":"2026-10-09T03:12:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T01:12:36","slug":"workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/workers\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tight Plan to Secure Dollars or a Response to Directives?… Exporting Trained Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cairo announced last January<\/a> its intention to invest in labour, or to “export<\/a> trained labour abroad”, especially to European Union countries, coinciding with the escalating economic crisis, inflation, the rising dollar rate on the parallel market and the need to secure hard currency.<\/p>\n

Talk of exporting trained Egyptian labour abroad may appear, as announced, to be aimed at securing hard currency in another attempt to overcome the crisis of inflation and dollar shortages and to create new job opportunities for graduates; but the economists interviewed by Zawia3 agreed that previous experiences indicate the matter “is no more than a quick response to the political leadership’s directives, and the continuity of this project is unlikely because of weak real capabilities to complete it”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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On 9 January, the government, chaired by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, held a meeting<\/a> to follow up on the file of exporting trained Egyptian technical cadres and labour abroad. The meeting noted the attention given to the file of exporting trained technical labour, given the volume of requests received from many countries, especially European ones, which requires expanding the preparation of technical cadres and trained labour for export abroad, to meet demand and provide new job opportunities using the latest systems in various sectors, in step with global developments.<\/p>\n

At the meeting, Madbouly pointed to the importance of qualifying the required cadres technically and working to organise more specialised education and training programmes that would help hone the skills of those cadres, while issuing the licences needed for their work abroad.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Political Directives<\/h3>\n

Economist Dr Rashad Abdo said the experience of exporting Egyptian labour abroad is not new and was put forward before, in a different pattern and performance, when Aisha Abdel Hadi headed the Ministry of Labour (in 2008 alone, the Ministry of Manpower granted new licences<\/a> to 40 companies to place Egyptian workers abroad, and renewed the licences of about 57 companies already operating to place Egyptian workers abroad).<\/p>\n

The economist adds in a statement to Zawia3 that the question that must be asked first is: do we actually have trained labour fit for export abroad?<\/p>\n

Abdo believes that “one of Egypt’s most important main problems is the lack of cadres, and if we had this wealth we would not have reached our current situation”.<\/p>\n

He continues: “Abroad will only accept real competencies that have undergone real training, not through the capabilities currently available. We have a model such as India, which succeeded in this experience and exported competencies in all specialties to the world, but through training centres whose graduates the world snaps up. So how can we compete with training centres that have been tested before and achieved no tangible success, especially as those centres suffer from a shortage of trainers capable of producing cadres able to compete in the European market?”.<\/p>\n

The “Strategic Directions for the Egyptian Economy<\/a>” document, issued by the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center, indicated that the target is to provide three million job opportunities abroad during the period (2024-2030), according to the Ministry of Labour’s estimate. The programme of strategic directions for the Egyptian economy over the next six years, until 2030, included items for securing foreign currency worth USD 75 million, including increasing the export of Egyptian labour abroad to raise remittances in dollars to USD 53 billion by 2030.<\/p>\n

As a result, and in line with the “National Strategy for Sustainable Development in Egypt: Egypt Vision 2030”, the European Union, in cooperation with the Egyptian government, launched the TVET Egypt programme<\/a> to improve the structure and performance of the technical education and vocational training system and increase employability to help boost the Egyptian economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Egyptian workers abroad have played several positive roles in the Egyptian economy, as their remittances are one of the main sources of foreign currency in the balance of payments: remittances from Egyptians<\/a> abroad amounted to about USD 22.1 billion in 2022-2023, while they amounted to about USD 31.9 billion in 2021-2022, according to national income figures announced by official bodies, as per the most recently announced figures. But those remittances<\/a> fell by 29.9% from July to September, according to Central Bank of Egypt data, to only about USD 4.5 billion, compared with about USD 6.4 billion in the same period of 2022.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Economist Rashad Abdo believes that this recent government interest in the file of trained Egyptian labour and its export abroad is because “President El-Sisi issued directives a month earlier on studying labour export and legal migration abroad, and that is why the ministries moved and took an interest in the matter”.<\/p>\n

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Mehani 2030<\/h3>\n

The new partnership between the state and the private sector in qualifying and training labour took the form of a project called “Mehani 2030” (My Profession 2030), which aims to develop the vocational training system at the Ministry of Labour to qualify young people for professions needed by the labour market at home and abroad. The project is being implemented in partnership with the “Tafra for Development” foundation, through free training grants for young people and people with disabilities, including grants for awareness of occupational safety and health at work sites.<\/p>\n

The project has a website<\/a> that includes the specific frameworks for each training programme, and 40 vocational programmes have been developed so far. The website explains that all participants in the project receive benefits: the training centre obtains accreditation from the Ministry of Manpower, a certificate and a licence to practise the profession, and is added to the project’s website, while the trainee obtains a certificate of passing the training programme, a skill measurement certificate, a licence to practise the profession and a change of job title. The trainer receives benefits including accreditation from the Ministry of Labour, a certificate and a licence to practise the profession, and being added to the project’s website.<\/p>\n

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An Opportunity for Young People to Travel Abroad<\/h3>\n

Abdel Wahab Khedr, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Manpower, began his conversation with Zawia3 by pointing out that the ministry took part in the latest cabinet meeting on labour export along with other ministries concerned with the file, noting that the matter is not left to the Ministry of Labour alone.<\/p>\n

Khedr pointed to the “Mehani 2030” project launched by Labour Minister Hassan Shehata on 15 January at the first vocational training conference in the New Administrative Capital, which aims to train one million young people by 2030 in cooperation with the private sector.<\/p>\n

He noted that the ministry’s goals focus on developing and raising the efficiency of Egyptian cadres and labour through 75 vocational training centres across the country, where young people are trained free of charge in cooperation and coordination with the private sector, implementing a periodic annual training plan that graduates nearly ten thousand young male and female trainees every year in the professions required by the labour market. “But so far we have not reached the goal set by the Egyptian state to expand the circle of vocational training; therefore the Mehani 2030 project came, implementing the president’s directives, to reach one million trainees able to work efficiently inside the country and abroad, performing the duty required of them honourably”.<\/p>\n

He added that the ministry focuses on skill measurement, vocational examination and craft practice before young people wishing to work abroad travel, on developing the training system, and on opening the door to licensing private vocational training centres, which had been halted for five years, and regularising their status, stressing that the Ministry of Labour aims to legalise the status of those centres according to the set standards, so that the ministry ensures that no certificate to practise a profession or measure skills is issued except under its supervision, which qualifies a young person to be trained and highly efficient, whether he travels to work abroad or joins the domestic labour market. “We are keen to give young people the opportunity to travel abroad fully qualified and with the necessary papers, and we currently have requests for trained Egyptian labour both abroad and at home, as happened recently with a German company that requested employees”.<\/p>\n

The ministry’s official spokesperson said 80% of its participation in the project consists of qualification and vocational training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
48 hours after it was launched in cooperation with the private sector, the Minister of Labour announced on the ministry’s website the start of the executive procedures for the “Mehani 2030” project, and that 400 centres had registered their data on the project’s system.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Also, the Ministry of Manpower<\/a> announced the publication of the names of the professions available for training and the conditions for joining the courses, most notably: surveying and maps, construction and building, decoration and interior design, networks and information security, graphic design, programming, device maintenance, computers and technical support, business administration and secretarial work, sales management, marketing management, e-marketing, call centres and customer service, therapeutic nutrition, elderly care, health services assistant, journalistic writing, electronic journalism, public relations, visual media, YouTubers, petroleum services and well drilling, cooking, air hospitality, ground hospitality, restaurant and caf\u00e9 service, fast food, front office (reservations and reception), refrigeration and air conditioning, refrigerator maintenance, air conditioner maintenance, car air conditioner maintenance, tailoring and sewing, food industries, fruit and vegetable preservation worker, production worker, nursery supervisor, special education carer, babysitter, family home manager\/supervisor, electronic engineering, surveillance cameras and alarm systems, satellite dish and receiver maintenance, mobile phone maintenance and home appliance maintenance.<\/p>\n

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Why Would Europe Accept Us?<\/h3>\n

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We asked a number of job seekers who are waiting for a chance to join the government plan for training and exporting labour. Mohamed Shebl says: “The question that comes to mind is: why would European or Western countries be keen to bring in labour from Egypt? Is this a sign of their confidence in the efficiency of Egypt’s workers in general?”.<\/p>\n

He continues: No country can adopt a methodology of bringing in a particular nationality unless holders of this nationality have a competitive advantage not found among other peoples, and unfortunately I say that we do not have any competitive advantage that would push any country to attract our workers. In addition to professional abilities, there are things that must be present in a person exported as a worker abroad, including knowledge of the country’s language, because without communication the worker will not be able to understand what is required of him, as well as the extent of commitment to laws and acceptance of cultural differences, which are ultimately difficult to measure.<\/p>\n

Saeed A., meanwhile, believes that what has been published about training and export initiatives is trading in words that neither nourishes nor satisfies hunger and is binding on no party, as we have no real, internationally recognised training centres to carry out this task, in addition to there being millions of graduates holding intermediate qualifications or who did not complete their education, who can be considered part of the labour force, and it is difficult to absorb such large numbers.<\/p>\n

Looking for other bodies that might be qualified to carry out training for export, we found that there is an important programme called “Forsa”, affiliated with the Ministry of Social Solidarity, in partnership with international organisations.<\/p>\n

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Funding<\/h3>\n

The director of the Forsa programme for training and employment, Dr Mohamed Samy, says in his conversation with Zawia3 that they are responsible for implementing the agreement between the government and the World Bank on the Forsa programme and economic empowerment; as for the programme, it is funded by the World Bank and implemented through the Ministry of Solidarity.<\/p>\n

It targets training, employment and asset transfer: the first track aims to provide 15,000 job opportunities through employment-linked training, and the second targets 35,000 assets.<\/p>\n

Samy adds that implementation is taking place in eight governorates, six of them in Upper Egypt and two in Lower Egypt, “and we mainly target Takaful and Karama beneficiaries, to empower them economically and improve their incomes”.<\/p>\n

It appears the matter is limited to eligible people officially dealing with the Ministry of Solidarity and is not open to everyone, as the Forsa programme director points out that beneficiary lists are prepared at the Ministry of Solidarity, then employment takes place through cooperation with licensed civil society organisations and private sector recruitment companies; 21 companies and associations have been contracted so far and given the beneficiary lists to begin training in general life skills and various job skills, after which on-the-job training begins.<\/p>\n

Samy continues: All the training is vocational, in various fields such as clothing, agricultural exports and quarries, then the company or factory is contracted for employment, while persuading the private sector of the need to provide a minimum suitable work environment and comply with the minimum wage. He denied that the Forsa programme has any link to the project of exporting labour abroad, explaining that ESCWA has a programme whose aims include exporting labour from ESCWA member countries, by providing funding to some bodies and ministries to do so, and announcing the availability of job opportunities preceded by specialised training through institutions accredited by international training bodies.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Labour<\/a> announced last December that the Egyptian Labour Abroad Services Unit had reviewed and approved employment contracts for young people to work abroad during 2023 in (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, the Sultanate of Oman and the UAE), after verifying their validity and the validity of the seals authenticated by the relevant bodies, and the total number of those who obtained work permits abroad last year was 426,085 permits. The ministry seeks to train one million young men and women to export them abroad and benefit from their remittances in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Egypt plans to export trained workers to boost dollar inflows, but economists say the push is a hasty response to presidential directives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[20213,20210,20214,20216,20211,12708,20158,20212,20217,20215],"kateb":[1203],"class_list":["post-18722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics-en","tag-egyptian-remittances-decline","tag-exporting-egyptian-labour","tag-forsa-programme","tag-labour-migration-to-europe","tag-mehani-2030","tag-ministry-of-manpower","tag-rashad-abdo","tag-trained-workers-abroad","tag-tvet-egypt","tag-vocational-training-egypt","kateb-khaled-eldakhil"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/\u0646\u0633\u062e\u0629-\u0645\u0646-\u0646\u0633\u062e\u0629-\u0645\u0646-Copy-of-\u0646\u0633\u062e\u0629-\u0645\u0646-\u0646\u0633\u062e\u0629-\u0645\u0646-\u0627\u0644\u0635\u062d\u0641\u064a\u064a\u0646.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18723,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18722\/revisions\/18723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18722"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=18722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}